It’s
one of the great ironies about David Lynch’s career that his 1984 Dune is
considered his biggest bomb – critically as well as commercially, and is still
the highest grossing film of his career. But when the studio sinks at least $40
million (a lot back then) into your sci-fi epic that they are hoping is going
to be another Star Wars, and the films barely crosses $30 million at the box
office, well, that’s not good. When it was released, Dune was considered to be
a disaster – a bomb that could potentially destroy careers. Over the years, the
film has gained a cult following, with some insisting that as bizarre as the
film is, it’s actually a misunderstood masterpiece. I don’t say this very often
but those people are, in a word, wrong. Dune is every bit as bad as people
thought it was back in 1984. An incoherent mess of a movie that somehow spends
almost its entire runtime doing exposition, and still makes no damn sense. I’ve
seen it twice now – the first time I gawked in amazement at the screen. This
really cannot be as bad as I think it is, can it? Watching it this time I have
my answer – yes, it is. But as colossal a failure as Dune is on every conceivable
level, it still stands as one of the most important films in David Lynch’s
career. After his independent debut Eraserhead (1977) gained a cult following,
and was a surprising success, he was approached by the studios. He did the
relatively safe The Elephant Man (1980) – a decent enough film, a critical,
awards and box office success (adjusted for inflation, it beats Dune’s gross –
but barely - but it didn’t cost nearly as much to make). He then made Dune –
taking over a film that had defeated others – like Alejanrdo Jodorowsky (last
year’s doc Jodorowsky’s Dune is a must see for what happened there), and Ridley
Scott, who walked away to make Blade Runner instead. It’s odd to think now, but
Lynch was even considered (along with David Cronenberg, an equally odd choice)
to be the director of Return of the Jedi. Had Dune been a great success, who
the hell knows what direction Lynch’s career would have gone in. Because it
worked out the way it did, Lynch learned a lesson. “I would rather not make a
film, than make a film where I don’t have final cut” he would say of the
experience. To get final cut, he had to make smaller films – which has led him
to make the kind of bizarre films that only Lynch could make.

The
plot is a mess – and really takes about 30 minutes or so before it can even
start, because it requires so much setup. The film opens with a bizarre
introduction by Princess Irulan (Virginia Madsen – who otherwise is barely in
the film) as she floats in space (and occasionally fades out, for what reason, I
do not know) as she tries to explain about the planet Arrakis aka Dune – a
desert planet populated by giant sandworms, and an indigenous people known as
the Freman. Arrakis is also the only place in the universe where “spice” is
mine – which is the most valuable substance in the universe as, among other
things, it allows you to fold space, so you can travel great distances without
moving. Irulan is the daughter of Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (Jose Ferrar),
who rules the universe. He fears that Duke Leto Atreides (Jürgen Prochnow) has
grown too popular and powerful – so he decides to give him control of Arrakis,
which is a plum assignment, but is really just a ruse. He is going to use the
Atreides long-time enemies, the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan) to
kill the Duke, thus eliminating him. What he doesn’t know is that the Duke has
a son – Paul (Kyle MacLachlan) – whose concubine mother, Lady Jessica (Francesca
Annis), defied her orders to give the Duke a daughter (he’s only supposed to
have daughters) – and instead gave him a son, because she loved the Duke so
much. This, of course, sets up a war on Arrakis.

That
paragraph was probably painful to read – it was certainly painful to write –
but it only hints at the entire plot of the film. There are dozens of other
characters – played by talented actors like Brad Dourif, Dean Stockwell, Max
von Sydow and Patrick Stewart among many, many others. There is talk of a
chosen one (gee, I wonder who it’s going to be), a psychic little girl with
glowing blue eyes, a psychotic Sting strutting around in weird underwear,
strange weapons that use sound to pulverize things, strange body shields that
makes it look like the characters are trapped in translucent boxes, cheap
looking special effects (even for their time). And there is an awful lot of
shots of various characters – especially McLachlan’s – staring blankly off into
space, while a voiceover tries to explain what the hell is going on. One of the
“rules” of screenwriting is never use voiceovers because they are lazy. Of
course, in films like Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas (1990) and Casino (1995),
and Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation. (2002), among others –
voiceovers are used to tremendous effect, filling in information and offering
commentary in an entertaining way. I think when whoever wrote that “rule” was
thinking of a movie like Dune – where it’s simply ridiculous to watch
characters star off into space.

I
cannot think of a thing about Dune that actually works. The performances are
almost all bad – but the actors weren’t really given much to do. Best of all
may well be Sting – who is given less to do than many of the other characters,
but does it in such a cocksure way that at the very least he’s different than
the rest of the characters – you remember his performance, even if you can
barely remember what the hell he was doing in the movie. I guess Kenneth
McMillan is pretty good as the Baron as well – although making him gay, and
covering his face with gross, pulsating sores at the height of the AIDS
epidemic was probably not the best idea in the world. Most of the other actors
simply look lost – as they probably were.

Apparently,
Lynch’s original cut of the film was close to 4 hours long, and he had wanted
to cut it down to about 3 hours – but the final version of the film is only two
hours and fifteen minutes. I have never seen the longer TV cut – which does run
just over three hours – because Lynch had nothing to do with that cut, and took
his name off of it. Perhaps a longer film would have been better – but I have
to say, I doubt it. Dune is cluttered and overstuffed – too many characters,
too much plot, too much strange dialogue to try to parse – too much everything.
A longer version of the film would like not be better – just be more.

Looking
back with the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to see why this film didn’t work
– and why Lynch was all wrong to direct, and write, the movie to begin with.
Ridley Scott may have been able to reign the movie in – although apparently his
version would have been two movies long. Scott has excelled over the years in
making large scale epics, with large casts and scale. Scott, while not the most
imaginative director, excels at this type of large scale storytelling. Lynch,
decidedly, does not. Narrative has never seemed to be much interest to Lynch –
his films are often complex, but the actual narratives are simple, the casts
typically small. Yes, he expanded in the Twin Peaks TV series – but that was a
series that allowed him time to explore, and he was working with TV vet Mark
Frost, who certainly helped. With Dune, Lynch was basically on his own – and
really had no idea what he was doing. You can make some auteur related
arguments for Dune – but to what purpose?

I
know the film has its fans. Perhaps for fans of Herbert’s novels, all this
makes much more sense than it does to layman like myself. Perhaps they simply
ignore the plot, and look at the utter weirdness on display throughout much of
the movie. I think the movie generally looks bad – the special effects are
awful – but the costumes and makeup are, at the very least, interesting, and
often unique.

For me
though, the film is interesting only because it’s a failed experiment by Lynch,
a brilliant director, who was given the wrong project and ran with it. He knows
he shouldn’t have made it – he doesn’t often discuss the movie, but when he
does, it with regret. But perhaps he shouldn’t regret making the film. The
years between Eraserhead and Dune seemed to be taking Lynch more and more into
the mainstream – something he was about to depart from – and in the process,
make a masterpiece.

About Me

I am an accountant, living in Brantford, ON - and although I am married and have beautiful daughter, I still find time to watch a lot of movies. This blog is mostly reviews of new movies - with other musing thrown in as well.